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Home My Public Portal About02-01-2021 Minutes Tourism Board Regular Meeting 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov www.visithillsboroughnc.com | @HillsboroughNC Tourism Board Minutes | 1 of 4 Minutes Hillsborough Tourism Board Remote regular meeting 5:30 p.m. Feb. 1, 2021 Virtual meeting via YouTube Live Town of Hillsborough YouTube channel Present: Chair Matt Hughes, Vice Chair Kim Tesoro, Nic Beery, Barney Caton, Barry Hupp, Tommy Stann and Cathleen Turner Absent: Mark Bateman Staff: Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell 1. Call to order Chair Matt Hughes called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. 2. Agenda changes and approval Motion: Member Kim Tesoro moved to approve the agenda as presented. Member Barney Caton seconded. Vote: 7-0. Ayes: Members Nic Beery, Caton, Hughes, Barry Hupp, Tommy Stann, Tesoro and Cathleen Turner. Nays: None. 3. Minutes review and approval Minutes from regular meeting on Jan. 4, 2021 Motion: Caton moved approval of the Jan. 4, 2021, minutes as submitted. Turner seconded. Vote: 7-0. Ayes: Beery, Caton, Hughes, Hupp, Stann, Tesoro and Turner. Nays: None. 4. Presentations A. Contract partner quarterly reports Alliance for Historic Hillsborough (Visitors Center) Sarah Parris, the alliance’s executive director, addressed the board. Parris reviewed fall events, including walking tours, and gave a brief slide presentation available in the agenda packet. Hillsborough Arts Council David Hays, chair of the council’s board, addressed the board. He summarized that the board has been adapting to the pandemic and continues to evaluate possible changes. Hays reviewed fall events including the mosaic project, virtual River Park Concert and adapted Winter Solstice Lantern walk. He then gave a brief slide presentation, which is available in the agenda packet, that included how the board has covered the roles previously filled by the executive director who recently resigned. He noted there was an article about the solstice walk in Our State Magazine. Tourism Board Minutes | 2 of 4 Burwell School Brooks Graebner addressed the board. Graebner is the chair of the Historic Hillsborough Commission, which owns and operates the Burwell School Historic Site. He shared a slide presentation that included videos about the historic site and how the Burwells celebrated Christmas. He noted that board member Vickie McDaniel was featured on the front of The Heart of Hillsborough magazine. He also noted collaboration was happening among the contract partners. Campbell pointed out the report stated that 2,275 people had been served via online programming. She noted that was a lot. Graebner agreed. Orange County Historical Museum Sherry Appel, the museum’s board chair, addressed the board. She gave a slide presentation, summarizing fall activities including virtual talks and making moccasins (for kids), virtual tours and small pre-registered in- person tours. The presentation was included in the agenda packet. She shared an event for April called Date Night. She described collaboration among the contract partners. Appel asked for ideas. Tanya Day from the museum asked for date night photograph contributions. 5. Action items Audit contracts Hughes noted that “Board of Directors” language in the contract should be amended. Motion: Tesoro moved to approve the contracts and authorize Hughes to sign. Stann seconded. seconded. Campbell called the roll for voting. Vote: 7-0. Ayes: Beery, Caton, Hughes, Hupp, Stann, Tesoro and Turner. Nays: None. 6. Discussion items A. Strategic Workplan January – June 2021 Fairview Live Campbell noted the workplan she was sharing with the board was not an external document. She asked whether the board wanted to reach out to the organizers of Fairview Live as a potential partner/sponsor of the event. She explained that a town commissioner had asked her last year if the Tourism Board would be interested in financially supporting the event through stage rental or similar and others have asked over the years why the Tourism Program isn’t involved with Fairview Live. It was decided that Campbell should ask event organizers if they were interested in changing the event from a neighborhood event to a tourism-driven event. If organizers are interested, then they should ask the board for support. Visitors and Relocation Guide Campbell said she cannot make content changes to the current design file; rather, she has to request that the graphic designer make changes. She asked the board for thoughts on creating the guide, acknowledging that information is changing constantly due to the pandemic. There was a suggestion to ask Orange County staff for graphic design recommendations, and another to use some Visitors Center staff time to update the content. Tourism Board Minutes | 3 of 4 The board expressed a desire to continue to have a Hillsborough-specific guide and advised that during the pandemic it may not be as high a priority since business hours and operations are changing so much. Annual meeting The Tourism Board decided not to hold an annual meeting and to continue to mail the annual report to stakeholders with a letter. There was a suggestion to ask Mayor Jenn Weaver to mention the annual report in her State of the Town Address. Strategic Tourism Plan Update Campbell asked if the board was wanting to stay on track to update the plan as scheduled and if so she indicated that funds would be needed in FY22 to update the five-year plan. She explained the money is for photography, graphics, and printing. No decision is needed until budget decisions are made in the spring but something for board to be thinking about. Rebranding and logo Campbell asked whether the board thought any rebranding or refreshing is needed for the logo or website. Turner would be in favor of exploring a new logo. Campbell said the logo was developed around 2016. Tesoro remembers the logo development was a long process, and she advised that refreshing the logo rather than coming up with a new one would be best because the current logo is now easily recognized. She said the point was to come up with something and heavily brand it so that when you saw it you would know it was Hillsborough Tourism Program related. B. Scope(s) of Work for contract partners for FY22 Campbell said it is difficult to know what will be possible due to COVID-19 impacts. Tesoro agreed and noted that the Tourism Board will not have as much revenue to work with. She suggested talking about this at the next meeting with the draft FY22 budget. Campbell said she would have December numbers and could give a mid-year review that would help inform the board. C. FY22 Grant Program/Funding (Spring 2021) Campbell asked the board to consider whether to fund grants, considering the Tourism Board is receiving less revenues. Hughes and Stann did not think the board should move forward with opening the grant applications this spring. Campbell said the board can decide next month after she presents December revenue and revenue projections. She clarified that if grants were approved, they would be funded in FY22 starting July 1, 2021. She said it’s confusing because the grant cycle happens in the previous fiscal year and is funded in the next. 7. Monthly reports and comments A. Staff report and Orange County Visitors Bureau updates Campbell gave brief updates, which were listed in the agenda packet. B. Board comments and updates It was noted that there is a vacant seat on the board for someone affiliated with a restaurant or pub and the town board of commissioners did not confirm the appointment for the TDA. 8. Adjournment Tourism Board Minutes | 4 of 4 Motion: Hughes adjourned the meeting at 7:17 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Shannan Campbell Economic Development Planner Staff support to the Hillsborough Tourism Board Approved: 3/1/2021